Chandrajit Banerjee: why the Prime Minister's call is more about resilience than austerity

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Most of us grew up seeing conservation at home—saving water, switching off what we did not need, repairing rather than discarding things and treating resources with quiet respect. We never called it ‘sustainability.’ It was common sense, passed down by elders, absorbed without effort and practised without announcement.In today’s global environment, that common sense is not just a virtue but a practical national strength. That is why I read the Prime Minister’s recent seven-point appeal as a timely reminder and not as a signal of panic.

The spirit is simple: reduce avoidable vulnerabilities. Conserve fuel. Use public transport and carpool more.

Use work-from-home and virtual meetings where possible, and for a limited period, postpone non-essential foreign travel and other discretionary foreign-exchange outflows. The government has also tightened non-essential imports, such as by raising duty on gold. It is a call for steadiness—small steps taken early so that bigger steps are not needed later.A sensible rule would be: travel when a physical meeting genuinely adds value; go digital when it does not and shift gradually to digital workflows.

Done well, this will save time and money without harming productivity.It is important to read the message in the right perspective. The challenges India faces are not unique to us. Every country is grappling with them.

India has continued to grow while inflation is benign. This call for conservation must not be mistaken for classic ‘austerity’ where growth is put on hold and investment is squeezed. The recent debate around foreign travel is a good example of why precision matters.